The large massif of Nevado Sahuasiray (5,818m) is an impressive sight while traveling by car from Cusco. Sahuasiray and its neighbor Nevado Chicon tower almost 3,000m above the cities of Urubamba and Calca. The first ascent of Sahuasiray was by an...
Our mountaineering team of Ueli Gnädinger, Leif Langenskiold, Conrad Weiss, and me (all Swiss) left Puerto Williams on the catamaran Libellule on December 29 and returned on January 29, 2015. Out of our 22 days on the Peninsula only four had good ...
The Nevados Humantay (5,403m GPS, also spelled “Huamantay”)are a chain of peaks extending northwest from the west ridge of Nevado Salcantay (6,279m). There are three main summits (south, central, and north) in the chain, all ca 5,400m. The chain i...
In January 2015 a Chinese group led by Daliu (the first private Chinese mountaineering expedition to the Peninsula) and a British group led by me together climbed 10 summits, including two first ascents on Anvers Island.We climbed Peak 1,217m (nic...
On January 4, 2015 Eduardo Baca (Peru), Dermot O’Kelly-Lynch (USA), and I left Cusco by car, en route to Calca in the Sacred Valley. We picked up Jorge “Coqui” Galvez and Yjeguel Camasa (both Peru) and continued to the town of Quiswarani (ca 4,000...
Nevado Quillujirca (5,040m) is located in the Rurec Valley—sometimes called the “Little Yosemite” of the Andes. On July 15, Rafael Cáceres, Esteban MenaYañez, Nicolás Navarrete, and Carla Perez (Ecuador) climbed a new 250m start to the Italian rou...
Tunsho Sur (5,420m), thought to be previously unclimbed, is one of the three summits of Tunsho (5,730m), located in the picturesque Reserva Paisajistica Nor Yauyos-Cochas, alongside other peaks such as the mythical Nevado Pariacaca (5,750m) and Ne...
In June, Rob MacCallum and Doug Bartholemew (both Ireland) made the first recorded ascent of Cerro Cruzjasa (5,039m) by its northwest ridge. The non-glaciated peak is located in the Sisaypampa Valley, which neighbors Nevado Salcantay (6,279m). The...
In the summer of 2011, Mike Ybarra cornered me inside the tourist-laden Yosemite Lodge cafeteria and asked me if I wanted to go open a new route with him in Northern Patagonia. Controversial landowner, conservationist, and businessman Doug Tompkin...
The Sierra Nevada del Cocuy saw three new rock routes of moderate length and difficulty, all climbed in January 2015. The first was established on the slabby, high-altitude south face of Güicán Peak (4,890m) by Angélica Gutierrez and Luis Pardo: t...
At the beginning of November, Josef Ficek, Lukas Kozlik, Filip Martinek, David Michovsky, and I traveled to Rio de Janeiro, and from there we moved north 700km by bus to Pancas in the state of Espirito Santo. Pancas contains a huge array of dark q...
“Does everyone have a good feeling about this?” Scott said, before we descended south 2,000’ into the Valley of Death of the Tokositna Glacier. Scott Adamson, Andy Knight, and I were hoping to climb a new route up the center of the west face of Id...
The shaded corner of grey granite in the center of the Mt. Huntington’s west face rose above me toward the cobalt sky. Stemming my frontpoints against the walls of the dihedral, I could hear my breath in the stillness of the high-pressure air. My ...
After a successful expedition to Kyrgyzstan in 2012, I put the idea to Alek Zholobenko (U.K./Russian) that we should find an unclimbed north face in the Himalaya with a summit not exceeding 7,000m, due to our lack of altitude experience. On top of...
In July, James Gustafson and I returned to the Pika Glacier of Little Switzerland, hoping to complete a traverse of the Dragon’s Spine [The Dragon’s Spine is a long ridgeline that culminates in a 7,490’ summit. It lies three miles down glacier (no...
Lonnie Dupre reached the summit of Denali on January 11, 2015. This was his fourth attempt to become the first person to solo Denali in January. Dupre was flown to base camp on the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier on December 18. He climbed ...
On April 28, Nathan Lane and I launched my 16-foot inflatable Achilles boat (the HMS Marmot) in Whittier, Alaska, hoping to make the first ascent of Mt. Muir (7.605’) via Harriman Fjord. I had been studying topographic maps of Mt. Muir and the app...
After a seven-day trek with porters, Tino Villanueva and I arrived at our 5,300m base camp below the west face of Parchamo (6,279m). We had planned on objectives a little further up glacier, but the new snow that fell in mid-October and caused dea...
Not far from the famous peaks of Kangchenjunga and Jannu, the Dudh Pokhari (or Yamatari) Glacier basin offers beautiful peaks for lovers of unspoiled corners of the Himalaya. Boktoh, east of the Lapsang La, has a steep and impressive north face. T...
Over two weeks in July a team of British climbers and film crew journeyed into Sarawak on Borneo to establish a new route in the Melinau Gorge and to document the wildlife we found there. Due to the number of people involved and the associated noi...